PARIS — The European Space Agency (ESA) has sent letters to its member governments asking them to protest a decision by the European Commission to remove Europe’s flagship environmental program from the commission’s proposed multiyear financial envelope, ESA’s director of Earth observation said.

The 19-nation ESA also will be taking its case to the European Parliament in an effort to find a place in the commission’s seven-year budget for the multibillion-dollar Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) program, he said. [more]